CEO Brian Dunn Is Done, Best Buy Is Back

Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn is done for good and this can only mean one thing: Best Buy is back in the game.

Brian Dunn has resigned as chief executive officer and director. There were no disagreements between Mr. Dunn and the company on any matter relating to operations, financial controls, policies or procedures. There was mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership to address the challenges that face the company.

The Best Buy board of directors seems to be stating that there’s been no wrong doing by Dunn. There are no accusations of mismanagement or any legal infractions. Dunn was just the wrong man for the job.

Who is the right one remains to be seen, but as part of the press release we finally hear from Best Buy’s Founder and Chairman, Richard Schulze.

“We thank Brian Dunn for his many years of service to the company and wish him well in his next endeavors,” said Schulze. “As we move forward, we are very pleased to have a strong leader with Mike Mikan’s credentials as interim CEO.”

Mikan sits on Best Buy’s board of directors. He formerly served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of UnitedHealth Group and chief executive officer of Optum, a health care services company and affiliate of UnitedHealth. According to the release, Mikan has strong financial and operational expertise, as well as public company leadership experience.

But he’s the interim guy. There is a search going on and the people who formerly led that company through a reinvention are now visibly involved. “We believe Richard Schulze, Chairman and Company founder will take a more active role in the company throughout this transition,” writes Janney Capital analyst David Strasser in a research note. “From what we hear, he has been more active recently in company operations.”

Dunn was not the problem exactly. But leadership was. This is a company that’s tackled big obstacles in the past and wasn’t afraid to blow up its own business model. That kind of chutzpah is in the DNA of the company, of its founder.

“We believe that Brian Dunn never got a fair chance. He came into the company at a tough economic time and dramatically changing environment,” writes Strasser. “He got blamed for a lot of problems that were out of his control, but that is part of the job.”

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Brian came in at a time where the company appeared to be brimming with confidence and kicking butts and taking names. However, that was somewhat of a facade. Being in the company at the time, there was always a concern about how long we could turn the trick. The confidence had turned to arrogance, and Brian came in right at the peak before the fall. I’m not a political man, but it was similar to George Bush Sr. coming in after Reagan. Good things happened under Reagan, but they required mortgaging the future in the process. I don’t want to say that Brad did a bad job before Brian took over, but I think he saw the writing on the wall and decided to get out while the getting was good.